


I've never had someone that knows me like you do, the way you do

by Shadowcrawler, unwindmyself



Series: we're all in this together [1]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Iron Fist (TV), Jessica Jones (TV), Luke Cage (TV), The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - High School Musical Fusion, Developing Relationship, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-10-06
Packaged: 2018-12-20 11:23:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11919852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcrawler/pseuds/Shadowcrawler, https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: Colleen and Misty meet by chance, are reunited sooner than they expect, decide to try out something new, and try to convince everyone else to join them.(a High School Musical AU)





	1. and now looking in your eyes, I feel in my heart the start of something new

**Author's Note:**

> The Defenders tag has barely had any femslash, so we decided to fix that in the most on-brand way possible.
> 
> There are no boys in this story. Too bad.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Colleen and Misty discover not only each other, but a new talent as well.

Colleen shouldn’t really be surprised. Bakuto’s never been the touchy-feely kind of foster dad, so why would he want to bring her to a New Year’s Eve party to hang out with him? She’d agreed to go only so she wouldn’t be stuck at home - the only thing worse than being alone in this enormous lodge full of people would be sitting at home alone tonight. Who knows where Bakuto’s gone; he’ll find her when he’s ready to go. Meanwhile she’s here in the corner of one of the quieter rooms, nursing a soda.

Or, it _was_ quieter before a few people start bringing in enormous speakers and...is that a karaoke machine? Uh oh.

She’s never sung karaoke before and she’s not about to start now. Colleen starts to try to sidle her way out of the room, but someone across the room catches her eye first. A pretty black girl with an afro, who’s wearing basketball shorts (who wears basketball shorts in December?) and who looks about as horrified about the impending karaoke as Colleen. Before Colleen can look away, the girl catches her staring, and gives her a kind of _really, this?_ look, nodding to where people are setting up the equipment. Colleen grins and rolls her eyes in sympathy.

Maybe she can make her way over to the girl and convince her to book it out of here before anything happens. Colleen starts trying to ease her way across the room, but only gets about halfway when someone announces, “Ladies and gentlemen, to kick things off we’re gonna pick two strangers and let ‘em loose on this thing!”

Oh, _no._

The next thing Colleen knows, she’s being urged forward by the crowd to the “stage” area where the microphones are. The other girl is too, and finally they’re standing a foot away from each other and microphones are shoved into their hands.

“Uh,” the other girl says, eyes going impossibly wide. As the backing track starts to rev up - at least it’s a song she sort of knows? - she yelps, “Misty.  I’m Misty.”

“Colleen?” Colleen’s not sure why it comes out like a question.

“Hi,” Misty mumbles, watching the television monitor for lyrics and trying not to visibly twitch as she waits for their embarrassment to begin. “You sing?”

Before Colleen can actually answer, the song starts and she sings the first verse, because it’s slightly less horrifying than standing up here with everyone staring at her and _not_ singing. She’s not sure where to look, so she just looks into Misty’s eyes. Misty’s eyes are dark brown and really pretty.

Misty gulps. It’s not like she’s totally unused to that kind of stare, she’s not, but Colleen is _new_ and Colleen is really damn cute and this is really not what she was planning on tonight. Singing is definitely easier than not singing, though. Singing gives her a reason to pretend she’s thinking about something other than how Colleen’s blush is probably the best thing she’s seen this entire winter vacation.

Colleen can feel herself blushing, and it’s not really letting up at all. But she’s also still singing, and sounding pretty damn good, honestly. She still would never have done this voluntarily, but they’re more than halfway through the song now. After this, she can disappear. Or...follow Misty to wherever she wants to go.

Misty’s _very_ much not the karaoke type, but she’s not actually terrible at singing. Usually this is a well-kept secret, but right now she’s glad, because it means she’s not humiliating herself in front of this crowd or this girl. The girl matters more. Before she can think about it, she leans a bit closer. That’s what people do during duets, right?

When Misty leans closer, Colleen doesn’t pull away. They’re not quite close enough to kiss, but...they’re pretty close. Her heart is pounding so loudly she almost can’t hear the music over it. Things like this don’t happen to her.

Finally the song ends, and the crowd is applauding. Misty’s not sure if that’s because this didn’t suck or because they’re into the obvious electricity between the two girls (this has seemed like a pretty conservative ski resort so far, but maybe this is the room full of people who _aren’t_ closed-minded assholes?) but either way, she knows that the only thing to do is shrug sheepishly and accept the praise. While watching Colleen for cues.

Colleen smiles nervously and tucks a lock of hair behind her ear, calling “um, thanks, thank you” to the crowd. Now that the song’s over, she has no clue what’s next - but she’s pretty sure she wants it to involve Misty. “I guess,” she says finally, “we can...let someone else have a turn?”

“Yeah,” Misty agrees. “Wanna get out of here? There’s, uh, cocoa, I think, on the porch.”

“Cocoa sounds good,” nods Colleen. She steps in front of Misty, then turns around and offers her hand. “Because, um, there are a lot of people,” she says lamely. “So we don’t get...separated?”

“Fine by me,” Misty says, smirking in what she really hopes is a cool, suave way. “Shall we?”

“Yeah.” Colleen leads her toward the porch, or where she thinks the porch is. There isn’t really a good opportunity to say anything until they’re standing on the porch, holding steaming cups of cocoa. “So,” she says, biting her lip, “I don’t...usually do stuff like that.”

“Me either,” Misty admits. “Honestly, I usually run the other way.”

That makes Colleen laugh. “Pretty much. But it wasn’t bad. You have a nice voice.”

“You too,” Misty says. “Lucky coincidence.”

“I haven’t thought about it before,” admits Colleen. “I don’t...there’s not a lot of chances for me to try new things, I guess.”

Misty tilts her head. “It okay if I ask why?”

Colleen makes a face. “Long story. Not a great one. But basically, my foster dad thinks of me more like a show poodle than a person.”

“Ugh,” Misty says. “Sorry about that. My folks can be a little pushy sometimes, but they aren’t… that’s shitty.” She takes a very careful sip of her cocoa. “For what it’s worth, this chance worked out pretty well. I think.”

Ducking her head, embarrassed, Colleen says, “Um, sorry if this is weird, but can I...get your number?”

“No need to get shy about it,” Misty teases gently. She pulls her phone out too quickly to be cool before she adds, “Only if I get yours.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course.” Colleen hands her phone to Misty and takes Misty’s, typing her number in. When she takes her phone back, it buzzes, and she grimaces. That has to be Bakuto. “My foster dad wants to head out,” she says, then adds hopefully, “Talk to you later, maybe?”

“Definitely,” Misty agrees, smiling. “Good, uh, good luck.”

Colleen smiles back and then turns to go. So the night wasn’t _quite_ as bad as she thought.

 

* * *

 

“Hey,” Claire says as Misty sits down at the desk in front of hers. “How was your break? Your parents dragged you to a ski resort or something, right?”

Misty nods at her friend, settling in and tugging her skirt down so her legs don’t stick to her damn plastic desk chair. “Yeah,” she agrees. “It was kinda some rich white people shit, but I had an okay time.” Unbidden, Colleen’s face appears in her mind, and she smiles sheepishly.

Claire narrows her eyes. “What’s that dopey smile for?”

“It’s not dopey,” Misty grumbles, though once she’s alerted to it she tries to tone it down. “I was just thinking about this girl I met. Easily the best part of the trip.”

“Oh god,” groans Claire. “What is this, _Grease_? Tell me more, tell me more, did you get very far- ow!” She yelps when Misty whacks her on the arm.

“It’s not like that,” Misty insists, rolling her eyes. “We only met on New Year’s Eve, and we only spent a couple hours together. _Not_ like that! It was just… nice.”

“Okay, okay,” replies Claire, smirking. “How’d you guys meet?”

“You’re gonna laugh,” Misty says, preemptively bracing herself for it.

“Try me, Romeo.”

“We both got randomly called up for some karaoke party nonsense,” Misty smirks.

Claire barks a laugh. “You’re fucking with me.”

“I’m really not,” Misty says. “My parents wanted to have some quality time, or something, so they sent me to the under-21 party the resort people were hosting in the main lodge. I was just minding my own damn business when they called us up.”

“And you went?” Snorting, Claire adds, “She must’ve been some girl.”

“Well, there was a whole big crowd looking too,” Misty defends. “I didn’t wanna be a stick in the mud.” She pauses to consider the suggestion, and she knows that stupid smile makes a reappearance but she can’t help it. “But yeah, she was.”

“What’s her name?” Claire asks, but just then Misty happens to glance back at the doorway and her eyes go wide.

Colleen steps inside, looking a little nervous, but when she spots Misty she grins and her whole demeanor changes. “Uh,” Misty says, clearly startled but nodding the other girl over anyway. (How could she avoid it, really?) “Colleen, hi! I didn’t… know you went here.”

“Hi!” Colleen says, coming over to stand by her desk. “I just transferred in and...wow. This is weird. Not bad weird, just, I wasn’t expecting you.”

“I wasn’t either,” Misty says, sounding more wistful than any level-headed person ought to. She shakes her head to startle herself back to reality and says, “Claire, this is Colleen. She’s actually the one I was telling you about.” This last part is said quietly, as if she hopes that Colleen won’t hear (of course she’s going to hear).

Claire sizes up Colleen, nodding politely at her. “Hi.”

Colleen’s about to say something back, but just then the door swings open with a flourish and the homeroom teacher, Alexandra Reid, enters very dramatically, followed in equally dramatic fashion by her daughter Elektra. “Greetings, class,” she calls, glancing around the room like a queen surveying her domain. “I’m sure we are all ready to return to mundanity after our all-too-brief winter respite.” Elektra prances to the front of the classroom and sits down in the center of the front row, glancing back to throw a flirty smile in Misty’s direction.

“Oh, here we go,” mutters Claire.

From a few rows up, Karen Page, the star reporter for the school newspaper who’s generally considered a “good girl,” calls, “Good morning, Ms. Reid. Did you have a fun break?”

“Thank you for asking, Karen,” says Ms. Reid, giving her an approving nod. “I was in fact preparing for the spring musicale-” yes, she says it like _that_ “-and Elektra helped coach dear Hope on a few of her compositions.” Elektra looks smug at that, but then, she nearly always does.

Karen nods to herself, scribbling something in her notebook. “So you’re doing a student-written piece this term?” she asks.

“Yes, we’re still finalizing details, and we’ll have auditions starting at the end of this week.” Ms. Reid eyes the room coolly. “It would be...nice if some of you who have yet to show a proper appreciation for the arts would consider auditioning.”

“If we’re not already doing this art shit, why would we wanna join?” mutters Jessica under her breath.

Ms. Reid glares at her. “You might find that it improves your character, Ms. Jones,” she says sternly. “After all, you can’t always approach life as if it’s a basketball court.”

Jessica snorts. “Lady, I’m not even in basketball because I like it. I got forced into it. Why would I pick _another_ extracurricular on top of that?”

Joy makes what could best be described as a simpering face and says, “Unlike basketball, the arts actually enrich your _life_. And you get to spend time with much more interesting people.” She glances at Elektra coyly.

“Definitely,” says Elektra, aiming a wink at Joy before tossing her hair. “And if you don’t get in the show, you could always paint the sets. You look like you’re good with your hands,” she says, glancing at Colleen.

Colleen, startled by the attention, says, “Um. I’m not much for-”

Ms. Reid coughs, not loudly but firmly. “I think it’s time for roll call,” she says. “Focus up, everyone.”

 

* * *

 

“So, you settling in?” Misty asks Colleen as they head out of homeroom.

“Sort of,” Colleen says with a half-shrug. “Ask me in a couple weeks. Is she always…?” Colleen trails off, nodding at Elektra, who is striding out of the room the same way she came in: dramatically.

Misty snorts. “Kinda, yeah,” she says. “Guess that’s what happens when your mom is the drama teacher, or something.”

Colleen stops walking and stares at her, baffled. “But they’re not...I mean, they don’t... _what_?”

“Nobody really knows,” Misty admits. “They have different last names and they’re obviously not related by blood, but as far as any of us know Ms. Reid is Elektra’s guardian and Elektra is, functionally at least, Ms. Reid’s daughter. It’s kinda weird, but it could be weirder.”

“Huh,” Colleen says. “Sure, I guess. So I’m guessing you’re not planning on trying out,” she adds wryly.

“What, for the musical?” Misty asks, laughing. “I mean, I’m pretty busy with basketball.”

“Yeah, I guess. You just...sounded nice at New Year’s.” Colleen ducks her head.

“You did too,” Misty says. “You, uh, you thinking about trying out?”

“I might. I need to meet people here, probably. I mean, I know you, but...more people.” Colleen grimaces. “Not that you’re not cool! It’s just...ah, shit.”

“You’re fine,” Misty promises. “You’re new. Meeting people is part of the territory. Who are you rooming with?”

Colleen stops (it’s a busy hallway, but she’s pressed up against a bulletin board on the wall so nobody bumps into her accidentally) and glances at the class schedule she’s taped to the front of her binder. “I wrote it down...um, Karen Page? Do you know her?”

“Damn, you really did _just_ get here, if you haven’t even met your roommate yet,” Misty muses. “She’s actually the blonde who asked Ms. Reid questions in homeroom. We’re not close, but I know _of_ her, at least. She writes for the school paper.”

“Oh, okay,” says Colleen, looking relieved. “When I got here late last night, she was nowhere to be seen. Then I passed out. I just figured I’d run into her later.”

“Probably in the paper offices, getting something started,” Misty says wryly. “She’s really determined, apparently. Kind of has a reputation, but it’s a good one.”

“Cool,” Colleen says with a laugh. “Um, anything else I should know?”

“Like I said, I don’t really know her that well,” Misty shrugs.

“Oh, I meant like...social stuff around here.” Colleen shrugs. “I’m not very good at any of that. Or talking to people. I don’t know how I’ve been talking to _you_ for this long, actually.”

“Sometimes when things are right, they’re just right,” Misty replies with a smirk… which lasts for all of two seconds before she cringes at her own stupidity. “But, uh. Social stuff around here is… fine. Most of the girls tend to stick with their little groups, so, y’know. Once you find a niche you’re probably gonna be good to go.”

Colleen sighs. “Not great at that either. I haven’t had many friends before.”

Misty frowns, finding that unbelievably sad but not wanting to actually say so and make herself look even dumber. Instead she nods at the poster behind Colleen, saying, “So try out for the thing. See if you like it. That’s not a horrible idea.”

“Hm?” Colleen glances at the flyer on the bulletin board, advertising auditions for the spring musical. “Oh...I dunno, you heard me sing. Is it that good?” She doesn’t sound like she’s fishing for compliments, just honestly baffled.

“I mean, I thought so,” Misty says. “I’m not an expert, but.”

Colleen is about to say something else when someone behind her purrs, “I’m sure your singing voice is wonderful.”

Whirling around, Colleen sees Elektra smirking at her. “Hi,” she says, startled. “Elektra, right? I’m new here, I don’t know everyone’s names yet.”

“Oh, I know you are, darling,” says Elektra. “I’d have remembered you if you were here last semester.”

Misty can’t help but regard Elektra suspiciously. She has a flash of feeling protective of Colleen, which is probably ridiculous. “Just pop up to scope out your potential competition?” she asks Elektra instead of getting weird about everything that’s going on (which is definitely weird).

“No,” says Elektra, too innocently, “I merely intended to put my name on the list.” She pulls out a red pen and signs her name on the top line of the sign-up sheet with a flourish. “Pam?” she coaxes the blonde girl standing behind her.

“Okay,” murmurs Pam, signing her name directly below Elektra’s. To Colleen she adds, “You really should try out, it’s going to be fun.”

“I’ll think about it,” says Colleen.

Elektra smirks. “I hope you will,” she says, reaching out to run a hand down Colleen’s arm casually. “I want to see if your voice is anything like that pretty face of yours.”

Colleen blushes, and Misty tries to hide her cringing as she says, “It might shake things up around here. Non-drama kids trying out and all.”

“Oh? Are you thinking of trying out too?” Elektra’s eyes are gleaming. “That would be a treat.”

“I might,” Misty announces, although she hadn’t actually made up her mind until right now.

“Really?” Pam asks, looking surprised. “But you don’t…”

Misty shrugs, trying to be chill about it. “Doing different things looks good on college applications,” she says, hoping it sounds like a better excuse than the actual one.

Elektra nods slowly, like she doesn’t quite believe her, but she still looks darkly pleased. “Well,” she says, drawing herself up. “Good luck to you both.” Then she strides away, gesturing for Pam to follow her.

Colleen blinks after her. “Okay then,” she says. “I’d better get to my next class.”

“Yeah, no, that… yeah,” Misty agrees, fully awkward. “Wanna meet for lunch, maybe?”

“Sure.” Colleen grins shyly at her before she turns to go. “See you later, Misty.”


	2. for so long I was lost, so good to be found, I'm loving having you around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After some deliberation, Misty and Colleen accidentally try out for the musical.

“Misty,” says Coach Dillard as the team is starting to warm up, “I need to talk to you in my office.” Her tone suggests that someone might actually die.

Misty shoots Claire and Jessica a Look, which in keeping with Coach Dillard’s tone entreats them to fairly divide her possessions when she’s murdered. She’s never gotten along particularly well with their basketball coach, so this isn’t the first time this has happened.

Claire makes a face at her in return. “Good luck,” she mouths.

Coach Dillard gestures for Misty to follow her and doesn’t look behind her again, knowing she’ll come. And she does, stifling a sigh.

Once inside, Coach Dillard shuts the door and turns to Misty. She doesn’t waste time either . “Misty, you know that as team captain you have important responsibilities to this team.”

“Yeah,” Misty says warily. “I know that.”

Coach sighs. “Then why am I hearing rumors that your attention might be wandering elsewhere? Some of the girls were saying you’re considering trying out for the spring play. But I’m _sure_ that’s not true.”

“Musical,” Misty corrects before she can stop herself. She may not be an artsy kid, but she knows that much. Then she cringes, because that pretty much confirmed it.

“Whatever.” Coach scoffs. “If you got a part in that, you’d have to show up for _every_ rehearsal. Do you know how often rehearsals are? How do you plan to fit that in around basketball practice? You know the championships are coming up!”

“I’m sure I can figure it out,” Misty shrugs. “I’m pretty sure rehearsals are right after classes, that’s when Vanessa’s always busy.” She rolls her eyes at the thought of her roommate, whose schedule she’s memorized mostly as a defense mechanism. “And we don’t usually meet to practice till, like, five-thirty. Besides, there’s no guarantee I’ll even get in.”

Coach purses her lips. “Well, of course I can’t _forbid_ you from trying out,” she says. “But I’d encourage you to think about what really matters to you. And if it’s this team, you shouldn’t let anything distract you from that.”

“Yeah, I’ll think about it,” Misty says, trying not to sound like she’s impatient for this conversation to end (she is). “Should probably finish warming up, in that case.”

“Yes.” Coach sounds extremely displeased, but she nods. “Go on, then.”

As Misty’s opening the office door, Coach adds, “Remember to keep your head in the game, Misty.”

Misty doesn’t bother hiding her sigh this time, but she gives a (sarcastic) thumbs up over her shoulder as she heads back to the court.

Claire glances at her once she’s joined the rest of the team. “What was that about?” she asks quietly.

“Oh, uh,” Misty stammers, suddenly absent of any bravado, “Coach heard a rumor I was thinking about maybe doing the musical.” She says it quickly, like that might somehow make this discussion easier to handle (disappointing their stubborn coach is one thing, but disappointing her best friend is another).

Claire’s eyes widen. “And?” she asks. “Are you?”

“Maybe,” Misty admits. “It’ll, y’know, make my college applications look better.” The excuse sounds even flimsier the second time.

“Uh huh,” says Claire, giving her the kind of epic side-eye that only Claire Temple can give. “Because being the school’s star player and team captain isn’t impressive enough. This isn’t because of that Colleen girl, is it?”

“I don’t just wanna come off like a dumb jock,” Misty mumbles, but she’s pretty sure her blush is giving Claire the actual answer.

Claire just smirks at her. “Whatever you say, Romeo.”

“Hey!” Jessica barrels over. “Team captain, are we actually gonna do anything or just stand around like assholes? And what’s this about that dumb musical? You’re not actually gonna do it, are you?”

“Drills,” Misty calls to the other girls. “Even something as basic as passing needs to get practiced.” Then to Jessica she says, “What if I was? What would it matter?”

“I mean, I don’t give a shit,” says Jessica, “but it’s pretty lame.”

“What’s so bad about trying new stuff?” Misty retorts, grabbing a ball and tossing it Jessica’s way. “It wouldn’t hurt any of us to get out of our boxes.” She can’t help but make a face after she realizes what she’s said, but there’s no going back now.

Jessica barks a laugh. “Boxes? Christ.” She grabs a basketball and ambles away, dribbling lazily.

 

* * *

 

After her last class, Colleen heads back to her room. She could go looking for Misty, but she figures she’d better be responsible and do her homework. After all, if she doesn’t keep her grades up here, Bakuto might pull her out, and now she _really_ doesn’t want that to happen.

When the door opens, she’s greeted with a chipper “Hello!” It’s obviously her roommate Karen, sitting at her desk in the midst of stacks of papers and books.

“Hey.” Colleen gives her a shy smile. “Karen, right?”

“That’s me,” Karen agrees, turning around in her chair to face Colleen and extending her hand. “And you must be Colleen. Sorry I wasn’t in till late last night. I’d have woken you up to say hi, but you seemed pretty beat.”

“It’s okay. You seemed pretty beat this morning.” Colleen perches on her bed. “How’re you doing?”

“Pretty good, y’know, just getting back to it,” Karen says with a shrug. “First days back are always kinda dull, but I’ve got some classes I’m really excited about, so that’s cool. What about you?”

Colleen nods. “Adjusting. I mean, so far boarding school is _way_ better than being at home. I met…” She bites her lip and stops talking. “Um, never mind,” she says quickly, feeling awkward.

“Misty Knight, right? You seemed pretty chummy,” Karen declares. She smirks before adding, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t wanna, but it kinda seemed like you _like_ her.”

Colleen suddenly becomes very interested in her comforter. “She’s...nice,” she says lamely. “We, we met at a party on New Year’s and didn’t realize we were both gonna be going here.”

“Ah-huh,” Karen says, nodding like she’s pretty sure there’s more to it than that but she’s not going to press. “I guess that’s pretty convenient, though. Means you’re not starting off without anyone in your corner. I mean…” She shrugs, offering a smile. “I’m in your corner, too, if you want. I was gonna ask you, what kinda stuff are you into?”

“I’ve always been expected to get good grades,” says Colleen with a shrug. “And I’ve been doing martial arts since forever. I haven’t had a ton of time to do much else. Um, and I like studying Japanese and Mandarin because my birth parents were Japanese and Chinese, but I’m a little rusty on the latter.”

“Oh, cool!” Karen exclaims, eyes lighting up. “So I’m on the academic decathlon team, right, and we’d totally love to have you. If you wanted. We don’t really have any language-focused girls on the team at the moment. I mean, I’m okay at Spanish but I’m more the resident word nerd.”

Colleen tilts her head. “What do you guys do?”

“Basically we go up against other schools and see who can answer academic questions first,” Karen explains. “You know how they do the math competition in _Mean Girls_? It’s like that, but not just about math, thank goodness.”

That makes Colleen laugh. “Gotcha. Sure, yeah. I haven’t figured out any clubs to join or anything yet, and you seem cool. Well...” She pauses before adding, “I was thinking about trying out for the musical, but I might not do that, I dunno.”

“I mean, you don’t have to if you decide you’re not into it, but I can bring you to a meeting and introduce you around, if you want,” Karen offers. “Not that you couldn’t do that _and_ the musical, too. Although I’ll warn you, the drama girls are kinda, y’know… well, we’re nicer.”

“I met Elektra already,” Colleen says. “She’s...something.”

Karen makes a face. “Yeah, that’s one way of putting it,” she says. “I mean, everyone can see she’s hot, she doesn’t need to rub it in our faces like she does.” She rolls her eyes.

“I think she might have been hitting on me,” Colleen replies, then is suddenly worried that sounds like bragging. “Not that I wanted her to, or anything. She just, uh, told me my singing voice was probably nice and I should try out.” She decides not to mention that her main motivation for trying out is Misty.

“That’s kinda how she is,” Karen declares, and after a pause she sighs and adds, “I may have had the _very_ briefest of things with her sophomore year. Not that I’m still hung up on her, I’m seriously not, but. Y’know. I’ve been there, kinda.”

“Oh,” says Colleen. “I’m...sorry?” She’s really not sure how to respond to that.

“It’s not a big deal,” Karen shrugs. “Just, I know she has mad flirting skills. Have you ever done musicals or singing or anything before?”

Shaking her head, Colleen admits, “Not really. There was this one thing on New Year’s…” She feels her cheeks get hot before she continues. “It’s where Misty and I met, there was this surprise karaoke thing and we both got called up, and I guess that went okay. We got applause.”

“Was it more like… awkward polite applause? Or like they were actually into it?” Karen asks. “I mean, I’m guessing probably more the latter because I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt, but.”

“They seemed into it,” says Colleen. “I wasn’t, uh, paying a ton of attention to the crowd.” She’s hoping Karen won’t figure out that that’s because she was paying way more attention to Misty.

“Well, do you think it’d be fun?” Karen presses. “Doing a musical. Singing, dancing, whatever.”

“Maybe? I liked how being up there in front of people felt. Especially because I was with...um.” Colleen stops herself before she can finish the sentence. Dammit.

Karen nods like she totally understands. “So go for it, then,” she encourages. “Never know what’ll happen.”

“Thanks,” says Colleen. “So when does your decathlon thing meet up?”

“We’re actually having a dinner meet-up tonight, just checking in and hanging out, no pressure,” Karen says, beaming.

“Cool. Mind if I tag along, then?”

“No, please come! We’d all be really glad to have you, promise.”

 

* * *

 

Karen and Colleen are some of the last ones to show up at dinner, considering the large round table in the dining hall is already mostly full, but as soon as they’re in sight another blonde waves eagerly and calls, “I saved you seats!”

“C’mon,” Karen says, waving Colleen along.

Colleen follows obediently, trying to look more excited than nervous (and not entirely succeeding). Once she’s seated next to Karen, she gives the table a shy little wave. “Hi. I’m Colleen.”

“She’s thinking about joining the fun,” Karen says by way of introduction. “Also my new roommate, so I know she’s pretty cool.”

The other blonde girl grins. “I’ll trust her on that,” she says. “Hey, I’m Trish. Recovering pageant queen, active social justice warrior and proud.”

A black girl with big glasses beside her smiles and says, “Reva. I’m the science geek.”

The rest of the girls go around the table, offering their names and specialties like they’re totally used to it (in this group, it makes sense, Colleen figures), and finally the teacher sitting on Karen’s other side says, “Hi there, Colleen, I’m Ms. Ross, the academic advisor. Or you can call me Wendy if you want.”

“Usually we stick to Ms. Ross when there’s other faculty around,” explains Reva, “but if it’s just us it’s a little more relaxed.”

“Hi.” Colleen glances around the group. “So, uh, I guess my specialty is language? I know Japanese and Mandarin.”

“Awesome,” Trish says enthusiastically.

“If you actually managed to teach me Mandarin, my parents would be eternally grateful,” says Mei, one of the youngest girls in the group. “I’ve never been able to pick it up. I’m pretty sure they cry about it when I’m not there.”

That makes Colleen chuckle. “My birth mom spoke it a lot when I was really little, I guess, so I picked it up as a kid and then kept studying it. Ditto Japanese but with my birth dad.”

“Hey, whatever works,” Mei says cheerfully.

“So how does this work, anyway?” Colleen asks everyone. “I mean, Karen explained some of it, but. Yeah. When are meetings, do I need to bring stuff, y’know, things like that.”

“We typically have meetings about once a week, in my classroom,” Wendy says. “Room six on the second floor. I’m sure Karen can help you out, if you decide you want to join us.”

“You should really join us,” Trish says, nodding. “We basically have fun being giant nerds together, it looks awesome on a college application, and whenever any of us has a weird project the others are there to help. Like these guys have helped me do fundraisers and campaigns, or if Reva needs people to answer things for her psych class.”

“I’ve sent them out to get quotes for articles more than once,” Karen adds.

One of the other girls - Blue? Olive? Amber? Some color name - nods eagerly. “I’ve used them as models for art class before.”

Colleen nods. “Sounds cool. Do I have to like...fill out something or light a candle or swear a blood oath?”

The girls giggle and Wendy snorts fondly. “We’re not a _cult_. Or the drama club. Don’t tell anyone I said that, I’m supposed to remain impartial as a member of the faculty.”

Making a face, Colleen asks, “Does drama club actually do that?”

“I don’t think so,” replies Wendy. “But it seems like something Alexandra would do. She’s, um...an interesting person.”

“She means crazy,” Karen says sagely. “She’s just being nice about it.”

Wendy looks carefully blank. “I won’t agree or disagree with that.”

“Well, as long as there’s no candles or blood oaths,” Colleen jokes.

“We keep it pretty chill,” Reva promises.

 

* * *

 

“Welcome to the first round of auditions for our spring musicale!” calls Ms. Reid, clapping her hands for order. The few dozen people in the audience fall silent immediately. “I must say, this is quite a good turnout. I’m impressed that so many of you have decided to better yourselves through the participation in the arts. I hope that after today, no matter the outcome, you will all leave with a blossoming interest in the theater and continue to improve in your artistic endeavors.” She goes to sit down in the front row with a flourish. “Let us begin!”

The first one up on stage is Joy, who puts on a big smile and nods to little Hope at the piano. “I’m Joy Meachum,” she announces confidently, “and I’m going to be singing ‘I Got the Sun in the Morning’ from _Annie Get Your Gun_.”

And after Hope plays the opening bars, she does exactly that. The problem is that Joy doesn’t understand a few very crucial things: one, vehement hand motions are not acting, two, facial expressions that are this exaggerated are only appropriate when you’re being intentionally ironic, and three, _Annie Get Your Gun_ is… well, it’s pretty done. She really does give it her all, but the problem is that her all isn’t noteworthy, at least in any positive way.

A tall blonde girl wearing a sparkly dress is up next. “Hi, my name is Marci Stahl, and I’ll be singing ‘Dance: Ten Looks: Three’ from _A Chorus Line_.” Before Ms. Reid, who _definitely_ knows what that song involves, can object, Marci has launched into it.

By the end of the performance, every eye in the place is on her - probably because the song involves a not-insignificant amount of self-groping. Marci takes a bow and beams at Ms. Reid expectantly.

Ms. Reid, looking sort of startled, coughs and nods. “Ah, yes, well. Very nice, Marci. Very good...energy. Next?”

The next girl auditioning is a brunette who looks, to put it politely, _experienced_ , and she smirks first at Elektra and then at Ms. Reid before announcing with a faint Israeli accent, “My name is Vanessa Marianna and I’m going to be singing ‘Be Italian’ from _Nine_.”

It’s not by any means a perfect song, but it’s clear that Vanessa understands its prime appeal, which is that it can be turned into an almost vaudevillian showpiece. She murmurs something to Hope before she starts, an instruction about how to play the accompaniment perhaps, and then proceeds to vamp it up for the duration of the song, even including some light choreography involving a chair and a lot of intentional foot-stomping.

Ms. Reid gives her a very polite nod. “Interesting. Thank you, Vanessa.”

Elektra, from where the group of girls trying out are sitting, claps a bit more vigorously than she has for everyone else’s audition. When Vanessa glances her way, she smirks and gives her a little wave.

The next few girls are acceptable, if not exactly star material - one of the sophomores, Lexi, does the world’s surliest rendition of “My New Philosophy” from _You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown_ , which is almost funny; a senior named Becca goes bold with “By the Sea” from _Sweeney Todd_ and actually manages to stick the accent about half of the time - and then Pam and Elektra get up on stage.

“Are they auditioning _together_?” Lexi whispers, rolling her eyes.

“They’re just weird and codependent about stuff like this,” sighs another girl, Norma.

As it turns out, Elektra is just sitting on the piano bench beside Hope and watching Pam as she takes center stage, with the excuse that she might need to turn pages. (Really it’s just an excuse to be on stage a little longer.) “I’m Pam Van Der Stoep,” Pam announces, clear and more confident than she says anything else but still not exactly bold, “and I’m going to be singing ‘I Know Things Now’ from _Into the Woods_.”

Considering she’s on the older end of people performing the role of Little Red, Pam very wisely doesn’t play it at all cloying. She also doesn’t overemphasize the innuendo, which means that her rendition, while vocally pretty good, is pretty middle-of-the-road as acting goes. It’s pretty clear she’s not supposed to be the star (and that’s just how Elektra wants it, judging by her proud smile).

“Nicely done, Pam,” says Ms. Reid with an approving nod.

Elektra saunters over as Pam leaves to sit next to the piano, announcing, “And I’ll be performing ‘Whatever Lola Wants’ from _Damn Yankees,_ ” she says with a flirty wink. She launches into a performance that is...well, _just_ this side of too sexual for a high schooler. More than one girl in the audience sits up straighter when she looks in their direction.

Colleen’s just snuck into the auditorium to watch, honestly. She’s late, and that’s sort of on purpose - she kind of chickened out and at this point there’s no salvaging it. She figures she can just hover at the back and slip out once everyone has auditioned, but then Elektra spots her mid-word and deliberately makes eye contact, holding it for _way_ too long and smirking at her. Colleen immediately ducks down into a seat in the very back and tries to hide, but Elektra doesn’t stop staring at her until the song is over.

There’s a wave of applause once Elektra finishes (mostly from the drama kids), and Ms. Reid calls, “Excellent as always, darling. Anyone else care to audition?”

Colleen could get up and volunteer, but she could also sink onto the floor and never leave, and that one seems like the better option at the moment. She _definitely_ hasn’t prepared any songs. Does she even know any songs? Ms. Reid probably wouldn’t be wowed with a rendition of a Tegan and Sara song.

Elektra glances around as if looking for people to call out, then glances toward where Colleen is hunched down. She opens her mouth as if to point her out, then takes pity on her and just tosses her head. “I suppose not.”

“Very well, then.” Ms. Reid stands up. “The callback list will be posted tomorrow morning, and callbacks will be held on Friday afternoon. Good luck to you all.” She stands up, shuffling papers, and then strides off.

The drama girls file out of the auditorium in groups, chatting idly, but Colleen notices that the girl at the piano doesn’t budge. This must be Hope, the one Ms. Reid mentioned was writing the music for the show. She waits until she thinks everyone is gone before she starts messing around, playing something that sounds more interesting than a lot of the accompaniment she was playing - not that those songs were bad, but they weren’t particularly complicated.

After glancing around to make sure nobody’s looking, Colleen goes up to the stage. She waits for the girl to finish the song she’s on and then calls, “That was really pretty.”

Hope whirls around wide-eyed, smoothing her hair down nervously. “Thank you,” she says, or more accurately squeaks. “Um. You didn’t… audition. I would have remembered if you auditioned, but you didn’t.” There’s a question hiding in there somewhere, probably, but she doesn’t seem calm enough to fish it out.

Colleen shrugs. “I was late. And I didn’t have a song or anything. I didn’t even know we had to have a song.”

“Are you new?” Hope asks.

“Um, wow, is it that obvious?” Colleen jokes with a nervous laugh. “I just transferred in.”

“Well, I’ve met pretty much all of the drama girls by now,” Hope rationalizes, “and between the fact that I didn’t know you and the fact that you didn’t know to bring a song…” She shakes her head, looking suddenly aghast. “God, where are my manners? I’m Hope.”

“Colleen,” Colleen says, offering her hand. “I haven’t really done this before, I just thought it might be fun. I mean, before I was late and hopelessly outclassed by everyone else who tried out.” She shrugs.

Hope gives Colleen’s hand a shake and offers a friendly smile. “I mean, you don’t know till you try, right?” she says. “I just started doing music to keep busy in the track off-season, but then it turned out I was actually kinda good at it.”

“Did you write those songs you were playing? They were pretty. I mean, I said that already, but it’s true.”

“Yeah,” Hope admits, blushing. “I mean, thank you, did I say that? Thank you. I’ve been working on the stuff for our musical a lot lately, so I like having a chance to just play the stuff I made up for fun.” She shrugs. “It’s not really the kind of vibe Ms. Reid is going for with her original shows.”

“I’d like to hear more,” Colleen says. “If you want to play it.”

“Oh, uh,” Hope stammers, “there is one song I really liked but Ms. Reid wasn’t into it, but it doesn’t sound as good if you don’t sing it too, and, uh, I don’t sing. Not by myself. Would you…? I mean, I’m not trying to put pressure, but…”

Colleen smiles. “I can try it, anyway. I didn’t even know I liked singing until like a week ago, so.”

“I mean, no pressure,” Hope repeats, “but I’m sure your voice is prettier than mine. Um, it’s a duet, but you can sing the solo part at least…”

Colleen nods, and happens to glance around the room. Then she freezes when she spots Misty hovering in the doorway. “Uh,” she says, intelligently. “Actually…just a second.” She turns to Misty and calls, “Hey, long time no see.”

“Hey,” Misty replies. “I, uh. Coach Dillard pulled me to talk about something, but I figured I’d come see if auditions were still going?” She shrugs, like she’s not a little disappointed that they’re clearly not (and a little annoyed that Coach probably called her in to keep her from getting there on time, but there’s nothing she can do about that).

“No, but Hope was about to share one of her original songs, but she said she’d only do it if someone else sings it. And it’s a duet,” Colleen says, trying not to sound too hopeful.

Misty glances around. “Well, if we’re both winging it together,” she says, approaching the stage and trying to do so not too eagerly. “Hey, Hope, I’m Misty. You must be good at this stuff if Ms. Reid has you writing the show.”

“I’m okay,” Hope says modestly. “This one didn’t make the cut. It’s too weird for her or something.” She’s blushing when she adds, “I think it might just be too gay for her. As if the musical put on by the all-girls school isn’t gonna be gay automatically. Or that’s what my roommate said when I mentioned… anyway, here’s the melody.” She starts picking out the tune, sort of halfway singing/halfway saying the lyrics, before looking to the other girls. “Good?”

“I think I can improv it,” Misty says.

Colleen nods, nervous but eager. It’s not even that complicated a song, but she hasn’t done this in front of...well, people who will actually _know_ her for longer than an hour.

So they get started. Hope plays kind of slow at first, nodding at the others when it’s their time to come in. It’s pretty, kind of introspective, and as mentioned pretty gay - in a kind of moody magical _Carmilla_ way, which isn’t Broadway enough for Ms. Reid. It sounds really nice on Colleen and Misty, though, and after the first verse-bridge-chorus she glances at them again to give a reassuring grin.

Misty, meanwhile, is having kind of an out-of-body experience, sight-reading this random girl’s lesbian love duet with a very much not random girl that she very much does want to be singing a lesbian love duet with, for, about, and whatever else could apply. They’re doing that thing of getting close like they did on New Year’s, inching nearer as they get into the moment, and Misty’s feeling pretty stunned, but she’s sure not stopping this for anything.

Colleen is doing her best to keep up with the song while blatantly staring at Misty. It’s sort of difficult because Misty is _really_ pretty and they’re standing kind of close and she really wants to kiss her. But that would interrupt the song, so she just keeps going.

Then, suddenly, they’re at the end of the song, and she’s trying to catch her breath.

She’s jolted out of her reverie by some sharp clapping. They both turn to see Ms. Reid standing off to the side, applauding and smiling ever so slightly. “Well done,” she says. “Of course, we’ll need to work on your breathing if you’re given roles, but there’s time for that. Be there on Friday afternoon for callbacks.” Without another word, she turns to leave.

“Uh, what?” Misty asks.

Colleen raises an eyebrow. “I thought she said callbacks wouldn’t be announced till tomorrow morning.”

“I guess she really liked your voices,” Hope says. “I get that! You sounded really good. Especially, um, together.” She smiles shyly.

Colleen grins. “Thanks. So,” she says to Misty, “I guess we’re doing this, huh?”

“I guess we are,” Misty agrees. Shyly she reaches her hand toward Colleen’s. “I’m good for it if you are.”

Colleen grabs it, not too eagerly, she hopes. “I am,” she says with nod. “Let’s do it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the names in this story were taken from actual MCU characters. They might only have been in one scene, or mentioned once, but they're there.


	3. but I've got a confession, my own secret obsession, and it's making me lose control

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Word gets around that Misty and Colleen got callbacks.

Elektra traipses into school the next morning, Pam in her wake, and heads right for the announcements bulletin board outside the theater. “Of course I’ll have gotten one,” she calls over her shoulder at Pam. “I’m sure you will too.”

“Ms. Reid knows how well we work together,” Pam says, both agreement and demurral.

Elektra laughs fondly, “You know you can call her Alexandra. You’re over at the house all the time, she knows you.”

Pam wrinkles her nose. “I know,” she says, in a tone that implies that she definitely won’t take either of them up on this offer.

“Ah, there we are.” Elektra glances at the list and smirks at her own name, which is at the top of the list, and Pam’s, which is directly under hers. Then she reads the next names, mostly by chance, and her eyes widen. “Colleen Wing and Misty Knight,” she murmurs. “Must be that new girl, hm?”

“Colleen? I guess so, yeah,” Pam says. “I didn’t know they auditioned.”

“Neither did I,” says Elektra, sounding as if she’s lost in thought. “Do you think either of them might get cast?”

“I mean, I didn’t see their auditions, I don’t know,” Pam murmurs. It’s obvious she doesn’t know what the right answer is.

Elektra shrugs. “Colleen’s intriguing, in her way. It might be fun to work with her.”

Pam raises an eyebrow. “And I know you’ve wanted to get to know Misty better for a while.”

“Yes,” agrees Elektra. “Not that I don’t enjoy your company, but it’s nice to...branch out sometimes.”

“Oh, I know,” Pam says eagerly, because she’s nothing if not understanding. “She does seem really interesting. But you can, you know. Get to know her first.” Understanding but just this side of smug (because she expects she can get away with it).

“Exactly. We’d better head off to homeroom now, or we’ll be late.” Elektra turns to leave after a last glance at the sheet. “Best spread the good news. I’m sure they don’t know yet.”

“Lead the way,” Pam nods. It’s not long before they pass Marci, who’s in a different homeroom, and Pam can’t help but say to her, “Callbacks are up! And they’re _really_ interesting.”

“Oh yeah?” Marci asks. “Did I get one? I don’t have time to go look right now.”

Elektra nods. “You did, yes. And...do you know the new girl? Colleen?”

“Maybe? There’s a new girl in my bio class. I think her name starts with a C. I wasn’t paying much attention.”

“Well, she’s got one as well.”

“Oh, god,” Marci groans. “Don’t tell me you’re going after _her_ too. Have you dated everyone at this school yet?”

Elektra just smirks.

The next person they encounter is Joy, sitting near their usual seats in homeroom (with her usual hopeful smile). “Congratulations on the callbacks, you two,” Joy says, sounding slightly dispirited.

“Hey, you know what it says, just because you didn’t get a callback doesn’t mean you won’t get cast,” Pam consoles her.

“But did you see who _did?_ ” Elektra chimes in, eyes gleaming. “Misty and that new girl, Colleen.”

Joy looks as if she’s about to say something, but she doesn’t get beyond a confused squeak before Misty and Colleen come in. Everyone turns to stare at them, to which Misty says, trying to sound more confident than she feels, “Well, I _know_ I didn’t spill coffee on my shirt,” raising an eyebrow at everyone else like she’s daring them to say something.

“Don’t you know?” Elektra asks, too innocently. “You’ve both gotten callbacks. Congratulations!”

“Oh,” says Colleen. “That’s, uh, cool?” She shrugs, too casually, and sits down. “I didn’t even really mean to try out. We were just fucking around with Hope. I mean, Ms. Reid kind of told us we were getting callbacks, but I wasn’t sure if she was serious or not.”

“Really?” Pam prompts, glancing between Colleen and Elektra like she’s, again, trying to decide how she’s supposed to react.

Elektra tilts her head. “Interesting,” she purrs. “You must be quite good, for Alexandra to have said that. I don’t suppose I could have a private demonstration sometime?”

“You could just come to the callbacks to see us,” Misty points out, trying not to sound jealous. “I mean, you’re going to be there already, right? Kill two birds or whatever.”

“True,” says Elektra. “I didn’t just mean her, Misty. I meant you must be good too.”

“Thanks,” Misty says, somehow unsurprised. “I guess it won’t be a secret for long.” She glances at Colleen like she’s not aware of how totally heavy the implication of that is.

Colleen frowns a little. “I guess not,” she says, like she hadn’t thought of it before. “Anyway, thanks? I saw your audition, you were really good too.”

Pam smiles eagerly, but she’s pretty sure the compliment is for Elektra, so she just nods at her friend to respond. “Thank you,” replies Elektra, tossing her head. “I usually get cast in the lead roles, but I hope I’ll be acting alongside at least one of you this time.”

Before either of them can respond to her, Ms. Reid sweeps into the room in her usual dramatic fashion. “Well, I must say that turnouts for the musicale auditions were much better than I expected,” she says, smiling. “It’s very encouraging to see that some of you are still taking an interest in the arts.”

Claire snickers. “So how ridiculous was it?” she whispers to Misty.

“It was an accident,” Misty mutters, rolling her eyes. “So a ridiculous coincidence, maybe.”

“Sure, sure.” Claire smirks. “Nothing to do with that Colleen girl.”

“You can just call her Colleen,” Misty points out.

“Okay, Colleen. You’re dodging the question, Knight.”

“Ms. Knight! Ms. Temple!” Ms. Reid barks at them. “Do I have to separate the two of you?”

“No, Ms. Reid,” says Claire, then gives Misty a look that means _this isn’t over._

 

* * *

 

“Colleen! Come sit,” Karen calls, waving eagerly.

Colleen makes her way over with her lunch tray, sitting down next to Karen. “Thanks,” she says. “I’d hate to be a cliche or whatever and sit by myself in the lunchroom.”

“Aw, you couldn’t be a cliche,” Karen chuckles. Some of the other members of the decathlon team - Trish, Reva, Marla, Megan - are spread out around the table, lunches and homework laid out casually, and she nudges them to make room for Colleen accordingly.

“Heard you’re trying out for the musical,” says Marla, obviously inquisitive.

“I guess, yeah.” Colleen shrugs sort of casually. “I have a callback anyway.”

“That’s serious,” Trish says. “You wouldn’t have one of those if you’re not good.”

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” admits Colleen. “I don’t really know how it works.”

Trish shrugs, all-too-casual. “Like I said, I did pageants and stuff when I was younger,” she begins. “Never anything that got quite to _Toddlers and Tiaras_ levels, but pretty intense. Thanks, Mom.” She rolls her eyes. “One of the more positive things that taught me was that, barring really weird and sketchy circumstances maybe, the farther you get in something like this the better you are. If your audition was good enough to impress Ms. Reid into wanting to see more from you, chances are there’s a lot of good to see.”

“Makes sense, I guess. Also I’m sorry about your mom.” Colleen makes a face. “My foster dad basically ignores me, but I guess that’s better than the alternative.”

“I try not to think about it too much, honestly,” Trish says. “She’s a big part of why I got the scholarship to come here. She got me into cheerleading, and as long as I keep doing it, it gets me out of her way. Win-win. At least I’m old enough to realize how she treats me is fucked up now, I guess.”

Reva pats Trish on the shoulder, just once, and explains to Colleen, “The mom issues aren’t something she brings up on the regular, hence the reticence.”

Colleen nods. “You don’t have to share on my account,” she says, smiling at Trish.

“I’d rather give a little of the exposition now,” Trish smirks. “Get it out of the way and stuff. But the whole point of it wasn’t my childhood trauma, it was that you must be pretty good at singing.”

That makes Colleen laugh. “Thanks? I mean, I figured it would help since I’m new.”

“It definitely can’t hurt,” Megan says.

“Misty is part of this, isn’t she?” Karen asks.

Colleen coughs. “I mean, she was there when I auditioned, yeah.”

“You’re blushing,” Reva points out, a little smug.

“I hadn’t noticed,” Colleen says quickly. “Misty’s...nice.”

“She seems like it,” Megan muses. “Nice enough to try something new for, maybe.”

“Yeah,” says Colleen with a shrug. “I mean, I don’t mind performing. It’s kind of fun.”

“Hey, power to you if you can stick Ms. Reid out well enough to do the show,” Marla says wryly. “I mean, I love hip-hop dancing, but I’d rather just bust a move in my room alone than deal with that cuckoo.”

“I didn’t know you danced,” Reva exclaims, feigning surprise.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Marla shrugs, “it’s just something I do when I’m not nerding out with you guys.”

Colleen smiles. “Cool. I mean, I wouldn’t have guessed, but whatever works for you.”

“We’re all full of surprises, apparently,” Trish remarks.

 

* * *

 

“So when do we get to meet Colleen?” Claire asks, bumping her shoulder against Misty’s. “I mean, since you’re turning into such a big theater nerd for her and all.”

“You can meet her any damn time you want,” Misty says. “Go over and say hi. It’s not like you don’t have classes with her too.”

“Yeah, but that’s weird,” says Claire with a grin. “‘Hi, I’m Misty’s best friend Claire, she’s not coming over here herself ‘cause she’s being a chicken.’”

“I’m not being a chicken,” Misty retorts. “I’m just not being the possessive asshole who thinks all my friends have to go through me to meet someone else.”

“Okay, okay.” Claire rolls her eyes. “Later. It’s weird if you’re watching.”

Jessica, from the other end of the table, snorts. “Y’know if you want to make out with her, you can probably just ask,” she points out. “Don’t need to do this dumbass musical.”

“Oh, like you’re one to talk,” Misty scoffs. “You’re telling me you didn’t join basketball just to impress your cheerleader?”

“Fuck off,” replies Jessica. “Trish doesn’t give a shit if I play basketball or not.” But she doesn’t exactly deny it either.

“Whatever you say, Jones,” Misty shrugs. “But if you don’t play basketball to get action, I’m not trying out for the musical to get action. Maybe I just realized I have some interests that aren’t all jock, all the time.”

“Didn’t think that was possible,” Jessica snarks.

“This isn’t some shitty teen movie,” says Claire wryly. “We can like more than one thing. The second I get into a school with a good nursing program, I’m never picking up a basketball again. No offense, Misty.”

“You might surprise yourself, a good old pick-up game never loses its charm,” Misty remarks, “but honestly, no offense taken. It’s not what I wanna do forever, either. And it definitely isn’t what _you_ wanna do forever,” she adds, raising an eyebrow at Jess. “You hardly wanna do it right now.”

Jessica shrugs and eats a chicken nugget. “Dunno,” she grunts. “I like knitting.”

“Knitting as in sweaters?” Misty asks, trying not to laugh.

“Sometimes. Got a problem with that?”

“No,” Misty says. “I just wasn’t sure. I could never get past a shitty-looking scarf, myself.”

“I think it’s cool,” says Candace, who’s been busy finishing her math homework. She’s not on the team, she’s a cheerleader, but she usually hangs out with Claire and everyone anyway. “I bake sometimes. When I’m home, obviously.”

Claire turns to glance at her, eyebrow raised. “Wouldn’t have pegged you for the domestic type.”

“Get it from my mom,” Candace replies, shrugging. “Recipes like hers had to get passed down, and neither of my brothers can be trusted near anything that burns.”

“How’re they doing, anyway?” asks Misty, who’s met them at enough of the all-family events the school sponsors that she feels like she knows them decently.

“Pretty good,” Candace says. “Cole just got a driver’s license, so he’s terrorizing Mom for the car all the time, apparently.” She shakes her head fondly.

“Good luck with that,” snarks Jessica. “I’ll be over here, _not_ driving.”

 

* * *

 

“What did you think of the two at the end, Colleen and Misty?” Elektra asks Hope.

Hope glances up from her lunch, startled. Usually Elektra pretty much leaves her alone unless she needs something, and she likes it that way, but she figures this is a kind of needing something, probably. Given the glint in Elektra’s eyes, she doesn’t really want to know. “Um,” she says, startled. “They were pretty good. I was playing one of my, um, my other songs, and they were just doing the vocals.”

“Good,” says Elektra, nodding. “Do you think Alexandra will cast them? I’d like to work with at least one of them.”

“Oh, gosh, I don’t know,” Hope stammers. “They both had nice voices, but I’d never presume to know what Ms. Reid is thinking.”

“I’d bet she’s at least _intrigued_ ,” Vanessa interjects. “Wants to see something more. I would too, in this case.”

Elektra chuckles. “As do I.” She glances over to where Colleen is sitting, surrounded by the “smart” kids. “I hope she doesn’t get too involved with them. It’d be such a pity.”

“They’re not so bad,” Hope says shyly.

“You’re just saying that ‘cause your roommate’s one of them and you have the hots for her,” scoffs Marci, rolling her eyes. “Which, like, I get it, but don’t try to deny it.”

Hope squirms. At least Mei isn’t currently sitting over there - she has a different lunch period - to make this embarrassment worse. “Whatever, anyway,” she mumbles.

“Aw, go easy on her,” Pam says with an indulgent smile.

“It could be worse,” Joy says, raising an eyebrow and nodding in the direction of the ‘stoner’ table. “At least the brains actually act and smell like humans.”

Marci snorts. “Not like that’s hard.”

“Hey, you’d be surprised,” Joy shrugs, rolling her eyes. “Weed makes people act like idiots.”

“Just because it made your ridiculous ex go off on a spiritual quest to find himself doesn’t mean everyone has that response,” says Elektra airily.

Joy huffs and folds her arms.

“Besides,” Pam chimes in, smiling optimistically, “it’s not like we don’t welcome all kinds of girls into drama club. You don’t care that I play tennis, or that Joy does cheerleading, or that Hope runs track.”

“Or mock trial,” chimes in Marci. “I mean, that’s basically just a different kind of acting, but whatever.”

Elektra smirks. “Very true. And I have my knives, I suppose. We’re quite the diverse little group when it comes to hobbies.”

“What about _you_ , Vanessa?” Marci asks, turning to Vanessa. “You haven’t shared your weird hobby. C’mon, what is it?”

“I’ve killed a man,” Vanessa deadpans, sipping her soda.

There’s a series of nervous chuckles around the table. Marci snorts and says, “Oh Vanessa, always exaggerating. Hilarious.”

Elektra meets Vanessa’s eyes. She can tell that Vanessa _wasn’t_ exaggerating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be forewarned: the plot of this fic diverges from that of the film after this point, because with the characters involved being who they are the original plot stopped making sense.


	4. why am I feeling so wrong? my head's in the game but my heart's in the song

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elektra persuades Colleen to go with her to watch basketball practice.

Elektra’s pretty sure she can charm Colleen into at least one makeout session if she can just figure out how to nudge her away from Misty. She spends the better part of Tuesday afternoon pondering how, and it’s sheer coincidence that she happens upon Colleen sitting in one of the hallways after classes are done for the day. Colleen’s got her nose in a textbook, and she’s concentrating so adorably Elektra almost hates to bother her.

“Hello,” she says anyway. “Are you here all by yourself?”

Colleen looks up, startled. “I’m just studying,” she says, “and it’s quieter here.”

Elektra considers this for a moment before replying, “I was going to go watch basketball practice, do you want to come?”

Colleen frowns. “Do you even like basketball? I thought-”

“Well, I know there’s a certain someone you’ve got your eye on,” Elektra says before Colleen can finish, smirking. “But I thought you might be too embarrassed to go on your own.”

“Um.” Colleen considers this for a moment before shrugging. “Sure, let’s go.” She gathers up her stuff and then stands. “I’m not embarrassed,” she adds, too quickly.

Elektra just smiles at her. “I just meant, since you’re new and don’t know that many people.” It might seem odd, her asking Colleen to go watch the girl Colleen obviously has a crush on run around being athletic, but Elektra’s thought this through. It’s likely that the rest of the basketball team won’t take kindly to an interloper trying to get with their captain. Maybe one of them will say something that upsets Colleen and Elektra will have to...comfort her.

Shrugging in response to Elektra’s statement, Colleen follows Elektra down the hall toward the gym. “I’m doing okay. My roommate introduced me to some people, and there’s Misty. Thanks for thinking of me, though.” She sounds a little wary, but she’s smiling.

Elektra nods, trying to think of another topic of conversation since they’re still a few minutes away from the gym. “Colleen’s an unusual name,” she says finally. “I mean, since you’re...Chinese?” She makes sure to look apologetic as she says it, since she’s really not sure.

“Chinese and Japanese. Kind of a long story.” Colleen sounds almost nonchalant. “My folks...I didn’t really know them, I got put in foster care when I was little. My foster dad, Bakuto, he’s, well, he’s not the worst.”

Elektra knows how to hear all the things Colleen didn’t say in that sentence. “I’m sorry,” she says, and she means it. “That’s terrible.”

“Thanks, but it’s not like I remember them. Anyway, so I have no idea where the name comes from.” Colleen tosses her head and laughs awkwardly. “What about you? Elektra is...what, Greek?”

“It is. I was adopted too. Alexandra is, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, not my biological mother.” Elektra smirks. “I don’t have an explanation for my name either, or, really, where I come from.”

“Oh,” says Colleen. “I’m sorry.”

Elektra wasn’t even fishing for sympathy with that, but it certainly worked out in her favor. She has to try not to look too pleased as she says, “It’s alright. Alexandra and I have an understanding. I’m sorry yours isn’t…” She trails off, hoping Colleen will get the idea.

Colleen nods. “Yeah,” she says with a small smile. “This is the gym, right?”

“Yes.” Elektra opens the door and gestures inside. “Ladies first.”

That makes Colleen laugh as she steps inside. “I’m hardly a lady.”

Elektra just shrugs and herds her over toward the bleachers. Practice has been going for about fifteen minutes, so she figures everyone is too preoccupied to notice them right away. She doesn’t miss how Colleen scans the group, looking for Misty, or the silly little smile that spreads across her face when she spots her. “I don’t know anything about basketball,” Elektra says idly, “but they say Misty’s the best player in the district.”

“Wow,” Colleen says, blatantly staring at Misty (well, her arms _do_ look good in the white tank top she’s wearing). “She’s...really something.”

Elektra lets her ogle for a minute or two before adding, “I’m not any good at these kinds of sports, but I do know some styles of martial arts. And I’ve trained with knives.”

That seems to snap Colleen out of her reverie, and she turns to Elektra, eyes lighting up. “What styles?” she asks. “I mostly know karate but I’m learning how to use a katana. Or, I was, before I came here.” She frowns. “I guess maybe I’d better find another master, since I’ll be here awhile.”

Flashing her a sympathetic smile, Elektra replies, “I’ve learned various styles. Some Muay Thai, karate, jiu jitsu...it’s a mix. And some of the techniques I know aren’t quite orthodox, either.” She grins deviously. “I definitely know how to take care of myself.”

“Wow,” says Colleen, but this time it’s definitely not because of Misty’s arms. She’s gazing at Elektra intently. “Do you think you could how me sometime? I love fighting. I’ve done some research on some of the styles you’ve mentioned but I haven’t found anyone to teach me yet, and some of those moves are gorgeous.”

Elektra’s almost positive Colleen’s not asking her as a comeon, and that makes it hopelessly endearing. “I think I could arrange a demonstration for you,” she says with a wink.

Colleen doesn’t seem to get her double meaning, though. “Thank you!” she says. “Bakuto mostly trains me with my katana, and honestly, he’s mediocre. My former sensei had been training for over thirty years and she was just amazing, I felt like I was learning things just by being in the same room with her. I’d like to open my own dojo someday, like hers. But I’ve got a lot to learn first. You said you do knifework too?”

Okay, so she’s definitely not picking up what Elektra’s putting down. Yet, anyway. It’s cute, if mildly exasperating. Elektra shrugs it off and starts describing her favorite knife techniques.

 

* * *

 

“Oh look,” says Jessica wryly, nodding toward the stands, “your girlfriend’s watching.”

Misty splutters, barely avoiding dropping her basketball. “What?” she asks, panicking before she even turns to confirm it - Colleen is definitely sitting there, watching practice. With… Elektra?

Claire snickers, not missing a beat as Kerry Dugan tries to feint past her and she easily grabs the ball. “You gonna be okay to finish?” she teases. “Or will you need a cold shower?”

“Shut the hell up,” Misty snaps. “I’m fine. I just wasn’t expecting… I mean, we don’t usually have an audience at practice. I wasn’t in the headspace for it.”

“If you say so,” Yuliana says, sounding doubtful. She doesn’t usually say much, but it’s a small team - everyone knows about Colleen by now.

“Anyway,” Jessica snarks, “it’s not like she lives here or anything, like the rest of us. Shouldn’t be a shocker.”

“You know if you stopped bugging me about it, we’d have an easier time of getting back to practice,” Misty points out, eyes straying to Colleen for a moment before she realizes it’s contradictory.

“It is kinda weird that Elektra’s here,” Claire points out. “Like. I know she probably wants to get in Colleen’s pants, but seriously? This is just blatant.”

Misty rolls her eyes and passes to Jess, slightly aggravated. “When is Elektra anything _but_?”

Claire is about to respond when Coach Dillard blows her whistle and snaps, “Less chitchat, this is practice, not a tea party! Ten laps, everyone! Get to it!”

The entire team grumbles and starts to jog around the gym, but as she passes Colleen and Elektra, Misty can’t help but offer a shy wave. It’s only polite.

Colleen seems to be engrossed in conversation with Elektra, but she notices and waves back, grinning.

“Gross,” pants Jessica.

 

* * *

 

After practice, the basketball team is wandering out of the locker room en masse, chatting and towel-drying their hair. Misty half-expects that Colleen will have taken off, but - apparently not. She’s not sure if this is good or bad.

Both Colleen and Elektra come to meet her. “Hello,” Elektra says, blatantly looking her up and down. “You looked good out there. I hope your shower was refreshing. You certainly look...wet.”

“Usually happens when there’s water,” Misty says tersely, trying not to react.

Colleen, completely failing at not reacting to what Elektra said, is turning an interesting color. “Hi,” she says. “Um, Elektra suggested we come watch you practice. That’s okay, right?”

“Yeah, no, of course it is!” Misty exclaims. “Coach may not like it, but she doesn’t like anything.”

Elektra snorts delicately. “I got that impression. Aren’t you going to introduce Colleen to your teammates?” She looks expectantly at Misty.

Misty is about to make some smartass remark, but she figures it’s better not to poke the bear and just nods from Colleen to the others. “So, guys, this is Colleen,” she says. “Not that you didn’t know that. Colleen, this is Claire and Jessica.”

Colleen nods, smiling a bit nervously. “Hey. You guys were good too.”

“Kissass,” snorts Jessica, but then she smirks and adds, “Hope it wasn’t too boring.”

“Y’know Misty talks about you all the time,” says Claire with a sly grin.

“Shut up,” Misty mumbles, nudging Claire pointedy.

Colleen laughs, like she doesn’t quite believe Claire. “Sorry?” she asks, sounding sheepish.

Claire glances at Jessica like she’s expecting her to keep up the playful mocking, but Jessica is preoccupied. The cheerleaders, who have practice right after them, have started coming into the gym, including a certain blonde.

Which Misty notices and immediately jumps on, glad of the distraction from her own love life. “Distracted, Jones?” she cracks.

Jessica’s head whips around. “You’re one to talk,” she says, glaring.

“Trish is really cool,” Colleen offers. “She was talking to me the other day when I was sitting with some of the decathlon girls. Are you guys, um...together?”

Jessica makes a growling noise and storms toward the exit. “Bye,” she snaps over her shoulder.

Colleen looks startled. “Sorry,” she says. “Did I...hit a nerve or something?”

“Get the hell back here, Jones,” Misty calls. “You’re being an asshole.”

“What else is new,” says Jessica over her shoulder.

Claire sprints after her and says sternly, “Apologize for this particular bout of assholery.”

“Not everyone knows you well enough to let that slide,” Misty adds pointedly, not caring that she’s shouting it across the gym. Well, she’s not about to run off and leave Colleen and Elektra here.

Visibly sulking, Jessica walks back over. “Sorry,” she mutters at Colleen. “Not your fault. You’re cool and stuff.”

Elektra’s eyes flash. “I didn’t realize you were interested in anyone, Jessica,” she purrs.

“Okay, done now,” grunts Jessica, turning to go.

“Seriously, don’t mind her,” Misty says to Colleen, because she can tell this is a losing battle. “She’s even touchier about this kind of stuff than most people.”

“They’re totally together,” adds Claire, rolling her eyes. “She’d just like to pretend she’s a heartless asshole.”

Elektra’s about to say something when her phone buzzes. It’s a text from Pam, asking if their study date is still on. (Their “study dates” usually involve a minimum of studying, but it sounds better if they call them study dates.) “I’m afraid I’ll have to head out now,” she says, flashing Colleen an apologetic smile. “Very nice spending time with you, Colleen.”

Colleen nods. “You too.”

“See ya,” Misty says with an ironic wave.

After Elektra leaves, everyone stands around awkwardly for a minute before Colleen says, “I think it’s dinnertime, isn’t it?”

“Yeah!” says Claire, perking up. “C’mon, if we hurry we can get there before it’s totally picked over.” She strides out of the gym, most of the team following her.

Colleen glances at Misty. “You good? Or do you need to do anything...else?” She has no idea how basketball works.

“I’m good,” Misty promises. “Dinner sounds great, let’s go.” Considering Claire is busy leading the way, she’s not there to see when Misty offers Colleen her hand.

Smiling, Colleen takes it. “Thanks,” she whispers.

“‘Course,” Misty says. “Look, I know my friends can be kind of… weird.”

“It’s okay!” replies Colleen quickly. “I mean, I haven’t had that many...friends, so I wouldn’t know. But it’s really okay.”

“I’m hoping they’ll chill out once the novelty wears off,” Misty continues, shrugging, “but if it ever gets to you, let me know and I’ll tell them to shut up, okay?”

“Novelty?” Colleen asks, trying for playful. “Do they not tease you about other girls?”

Misty blushes. “I don’t do a lot of other girls,” she says, and then she realizes what she said and looks horrified. “I mean, being… into them, I guess. Longterm.”

Colleen giggles nervously and squeezes Misty’s hand. “Well, thanks, I think?”

“It’s a compliment,” Misty promises. “It’s a little bit of a happy accident, but emphasis on the happy.”

“Well, thanks. This isn’t, I mean, stuff like this doesn’t happen to me much either.”

“Lucky us,” Misty chuckles.

When they arrive at the cafeteria, Colleen spots Karen sitting by herself (nose in a textbook) and says, “Oh, I should see if Karen wants to sit with us.”

“If you want,” Misty says, shrugging ambivalently. “I don’t super know her, but I wanna meet your friends.”

Colleen nods and goes over to say hi, and a minute later she returns with Karen in tow. “I’m guessing you guys already know Karen?” she asks Claire. Most of the rest of the team has wandered off to meet up with friends, but Claire’s still here.

“A little,” says Claire, giving Karen a friendly nod. “How you doing, Page?”

“Pretty okay,” Karen replies, smiling. “Only a few days into the term, there hasn’t been much time for stuff to get out of whack yet.”

“Makes sense,” Claire nods. “Hear you’ve tapped this one for your smart club.” She grins and nods at Colleen.

“It’s not _my_ smart club,” Karen says, but she’s chuckling. “We’re all glad to have her. To have you,” she adds, looking at Colleen. “Not to talk about you in the third person right in front of you.”

Colleen smirks. “Thanks. I’m better-suited for that than basketball, anyway.” She looks admiringly at Misty. “I watched them practice today. Definitely not something I could do.”

“I’m sure you could if you tried,” Misty says, “but it’s not everyone’s thing. Should we sit?”

They do, and end up in a small booth with Misty and Colleen on one side and Claire and Karen on the other. Claire glances over at Karen, amused. “Didn’t realize we were on a double date.”

To her credit, Karen shrugs this off and laughs even though her cheeks are a little pink. “What are you gonna do,” she says casually.

“We should get food, shouldn’t we?” Colleen asks awkwardly.

“I’ll hold the table,” Karen offers, considering she already has her dinner.

“Thanks,” says Claire, getting up with the other two.

Claire returns first, sliding into the booth and giving Karen a mischievous look. “So, you’ll never guess who came to watch practice with Colleen.”

“I guess Elektra,” Karen says sweetly. “She’s been trying to make trouble, hasn’t she?”

“Got it in one. Dunno what she could be doing watching us, though. Unless she’s interested in one or both halves of the happy couple.”

“That sounds likely,” Karen says, scoffing. “She was apparently hitting on Colleen earlier, so.”

Shaking her head, Claire adds, “That girl. D’you think it’ll work? I mean, I _know_ Misty wouldn’t go for her, but you know new girl a little better than me, probably.”

“She doesn’t seem like she’d be into Elektra’s games,” Karen declares. “Plus, she’s super into Misty already. I don’t think that’s changing.”

That makes Claire laugh. “I’ve never seen Misty get like this about a girl. It’s adorable.”

“Yeah? What’s she doing?” Karen asks.

“Honestly, if she mentions someone more than like, twice in a week, I know something’s up. She does stuff like look for her when we’re in the cafeteria, get kind of moon-eyed when she thinks I’m not looking. Misty’s not real good at articulating her feelings, but we’ve been best friends since sixth grade - I know her better than anyone.”

Karen nods sagely. “Sounds pretty telling,” she says. “It’s not like I’ve learned all of Colleen’s little hints, but - she’s definitely smitten.”

“Cute,” says Claire. “Oh, they’re coming back. Better pretend we weren’t talking about them.” She smirks.

“So,” Karen says loudly, “how’s that basketball, Claire?”

“It’s fine,” says Claire with a laugh as Misty and Colleen come back and sit down. “We’ve got our first game on Friday, should be good.”

“Oh, yeah?” Karen asks, turning to meet Claire’s eyes. “That’s pretty quick.”

“It’s basically just a warmup game, nothing serious. It’s with our sister school, Shield Academy. It doesn’t really matter.” Claire shrugs. “Coach Dillard thinks it does, but it doesn’t.”

“Yeah, we do stuff like that,” Karen agrees. “Actually, Ms. Ross was saying something about having a sort of scrimmage on Friday, too.”

Colleen frowns. “Callbacks are on Friday.”

“Oh, shit!” Karen exclaims. “What time? I’m sure we can schedule around it, or you could, I dunno, leave early or come late, or something?”

“She said they start at 4:30, but I don’t know how late they’ll go,” says Colleen. “And she hasn’t posted a schedule yet so I don’t know when we’re on.” She looks nervously at Misty.

“I’m sure it’s gonna be okay,” Misty says, although she doesn’t sound sure. “The game doesn’t start till six.”

“Okay, so that’s workable,” Karen declares. “And we’ll… make sure, somehow, that it works out with our scrimmage. I know it’s important to you, Colleen.”

“Thank you,” says Colleen. “I mean, I know it’s dumb, but…”

“Nah,” says Claire with a shrug. “I wouldn’t do it but that doesn’t mean it’s dumb. We’ll figure something out for you,” she adds to Misty. “Maybe I’ll talk to Coach.”

“Be prepared to get eaten,” Misty remarks wryly.

“Ride or die means ride or die,” replies Claire. “Be sure to buy me some nice flowers for my funeral.”

“How sweet,” Misty croons.

Claire tosses a crumpled-up napkin at her friend. “You see what I have to put up with?” she sighs to Karen.

“It’s kinda charming,” Karen says. “Banter and all.”

“I’ve never had that,” says Colleen, grinning. “It seems fun.”

“We’ll get you there,” Karen promises.


	5. there's not a star in heaven that we can't reach if we're trying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two groups do their best to help Misty and Colleen get to auditions.

_ATTENTION: Varsity basketball players_

_As you know, tonight is the first game of the season, scheduled to start at 6 PM. Originally, you were told to arrive for warmups by 5 PM; however, this has changed. Please be in the gym at 4 PM promptly. We will spend the time before the game prepping, as this first game is very important and should not be taken lightly._

_You will be expected to stay for the entire prep session. NO EXCEPTIONS._

Jessica stares down at the piece of paper that the office TA just handed her. “What the fuck?” she mutters disgustedly. They’re in study hall, so it’s not like they’ll get busted for talking as long as they stay quiet.

Claire is also staring at it, looking baffled. “Coach knows this is just Shield Academy, right? Like, it’s really not a big deal.”

“Coach also knows what else is going on this afternoon,” Misty says grimly.

Claire shakes her head. “You don’t think…? That’s fucked up.”

“I completely think,” Misty sighs. “It’s no secret Coach and Ms. Reid have a stupid rivalry.”

“The kind of rivalry where they hatefuck in the broom closet,” chimes in Jessica, smirking.

“Well, that’s an image I didn’t need,” Misty grumbles.

“Just saying what we’re all thinking.”

“Gross,” says Claire. “Anyway. So what do we do about this?” She glances at Misty.

Misty glances up at the clock, frowning. “You guys up for a little strategizing?”

“How complicated can this be?” grumbles Jessica, but she doesn’t actually look that bothered. Maybe because messing with Coach Dillard is a favorite pastime of hers.

“Help or do your calc homework, Jones,” says Claire, leaning closer to Misty. “So, any ideas so far?”

 

* * *

 

“So our scrimmage starts at five,” Karen reports. “You think a half-hour is going to be enough time for you?”

Colleen shrugs. “I think so? I don’t know how callbacks work, really.”

“Well, how many of you are on the list?” Karen asks.

“Um,” Colleen says, eyes widening. “I don’t know, sorry.”

“It’s not a big deal,” Trish says. “If you assume that each person takes about five minutes - nobody is going to sing anything longer than that, it would be ridiculous - that’ll get through six people in that time. If there are more than six people who have callbacks, that just means you should make sure to get in early.”

Collen nods. “That makes sense.” She’s looking more at ease when her phone buzzes and she glances at it, frowning. “Shit.”

“What’s going on?” Karen asks, just as Trish takes her own phone out too and winces.

“Coach Dillard is making them go to practice an hour earlier,” says Colleen. “At four, not five. Not optional.”

“It’s obviously a scheme,” Trish adds, rolling her eyes.

“Shit,” Karen echoes. “This is getting weirdly personal.”

Colleen looks like she’s trying not to look sad. “Misty can’t help it, I guess.”

“But there’s got to be something we can do,” Trish says. “I know Ms. Ross won’t care if you show up a little late, so that’s taken care of, but we can figure out a way to help Misty get to that callback! It’s important to both of you, it’s going to happen.”

“Yeah?” Colleen asks. “I mean...I’m not used to people saying stuff like that. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Trish says, looking at Colleen with a little pity but not wanting to be weird about it. “Jess says they’re talking over plans, too. We’ll figure it out.”

“Okay.” Nodding, Colleen smiles at them. “Thanks for being so cool about it, guys.”

“Of course,” Karen exclaims. “There’s got to be something Misty could do to sneak out for a few minutes, if you could guarantee you’d get to go on at a certain time?”

“I think so?” Colleen says. “At least, I could text her and tell her when we’re scheduled.”

“That’d help,” Trish agrees, nodding. “Then all she would have to do is get there.”

“Yeah. I can definitely do that.”

 

* * *

 

They don’t have a lot of time to strategize between when classes are let out and the start of the ridiculous basketball practice, but Misty, Colleen, and some of their friends meet up for a little while anyway. They’ve been texting at every possible opportunity, but it’s good to meet in person so everyone’s on the same page.

“I’m sorry,” Misty says before they’ve even fully sat down. “This is ridiculous.”

“It’s okay,” says Colleen. “It’s not your fault, you didn’t do anything wrong.” She laughs and then adds, “I never thought I’d be in the middle of a romcom.”

“Likewise,” Misty chuckles. “I’m not exactly the type.”

“Gross,” groans Jessica. But she’s not in any position to talk, since Trish is currently in her lap.

“So Colleen’s gonna go to the audition,” Karen begins, sort of talking over the others to bring the group to attention, “and make sure these two get spots at… what time, do you think?”

“Maybe like 5:15?” Misty suggests. “That way it’s not too soon into practice.”

“But you don’t know how long it’s going to go, right?” Karen points out, frowning.

“Maybe 5?” chimes in Colleen. “They’ll last at least a half hour, there were a lot of people at auditions.”

“Could I be a diva and suggest either 4:55 or 5:05?” Misty counters. “I feel like exactly on the hour might look suspicious.”

Claire snorts. “She can aim for around there and text you when she knows exactly when it’s gonna be. Nerd,” she adds fondly to Misty.

“I’m just saying,” Misty defends, holding up her hands.

“Makes sense when you’re dealing with people as paranoid as Coach Dillard,” Trish offers. “She’s a pretty classic control freak. How are you planning on getting out of practice, Misty?”

“I mean, menstrual troubles are kind of a cliche, but that might be the easiest,” Misty says.

“You think she’ll buy that?” Colleen asks, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s not like she’s gonna ask her to drop her pants and bleed on the floor to prove it,” says Jessica dryly. “Pretty sure that’s illegal.”

“She probably can’t even come bug you in the bathroom,” Karen adds. “Even if it wasn’t illegal it would be seriously sketchy.”

“Should someone go hide in the locker room bathroom just in case?” Trish suggests. “To cover for her? Would that be ridiculous?”

Jessica snorts. “Yeah, it would be,” she says, but it sounds a little less mean than it would if she were talking to anybody else.

“We can keep Coach distracted too,” says Claire, narrowing her eyes warningly at Jessica. “I’ll tell the others to be sure to ask her a lot of questions or act up or something.”

“Questions, please,” Misty smirks. “I don’t want her coming down on you too hard.”

“What kind of questions?” Karen asks. “I mean, I’m just curious.”

“Oh, dumb stuff like about what plays to use. Maybe I’ll have some of the new kids ask about how Shield Academy’s players do stuff.” Claire shrugs. “We’ll figure it out. I’m pretty good on the fly,” she adds, winking at Karen.

“Maybe also why it’s such a big deal of a game, since we’re only like a week into term and nobody can actually have practiced that much yet,” Trish suggests wryly.

Jessica rests her hand on Trish’s back. It’s an overly casual gesture, meant to come off like maybe she just wanted to move her hand somewhere else, but she’s smirking proudly. “Congratulations,” she drawls, “you’ve figured out Coach is kind of batshit.”

“I mean, it really can’t be _that_ big of a deal,” Trish counters, shrugging and rolling her eyes playfully. “I mean, the cheerleaders only have to show up like fifteen minutes early. We’re not going to be stunting. There’s nothing to it.”

“She’s like this about everything basketball-related though,” Jessica says. “I guess basketball is her entire life or something.”

“Maybe that’s why she doesn’t get on with Ms. Reid,” Misty suggests. “They’re both a little too intense about…”

“...everything,” adds Colleen, making a face. “I know I’m kind of intense, but seriously.”

“Yeah, but you’re the cute kind of intense,” Misty says, nudging her fondly. “Not at all the bad kind.”

Colleen grins sheepishly. “Thanks,” she says, ducking her head.

“I mean it,” Misty murmurs.

“So how long do you think the audition is going to take?” Karen asks, bringing them back to order. “Like, the absolute maximum amount of time you’ll have to be gone.”

“Like fifteen minutes?” Colleen looks a little uncertain. “I’ve never done this before, but I can’t imagine it’ll take longer than that, for both of us.”

“That sounds about right,” Trish agrees.

“So can you cover them for fifteen minutes?” Karen asks Claire.

“Oh, sure,” Claire says, grinning. “No sweat. How about you guys, won’t you miss the little genius?” She grins at Colleen to let her know she’s being playful.

“Honestly, Ms. Ross doesn’t care if she’s fifteen minutes late, she gets that it’s important to encourage us to do what we like,” Trish says with a shrug. “We probably won’t even actually start right at five.”

“Besides, we’re just scrimmaging, it’s not for real points or ranking or anything,” Karen adds.

Jessica snorts. “Sounds nice.”

 

* * *

 

Sure enough, Coach makes them practice basically every kind of pass, defensive play, offensive play, and even tries to teach them a couple of new ones for good measure. “Yeah, ‘cause all this brand new shit will definitely be the first things we think of in the middle of the game,” snarks Jessica under her breath.

“Primacy, recency?” Misty suggests lamely. “Or at least that’s what she thinks she’s thinking.”

“Yeah, well, she can shove her new plays right up her ass,” responds Jessica, rolling her eyes. “Shouldn’t you be getting out of here soon?”

Misty glances at her watch. “Pretty quick, yeah,” she says. “Uh, Coach?”

“What, Knight?” Coach Dillard doesn’t quite snap, but she doesn’t sound like she’s up for conversation either.

“I’m having, uh,” Misty murmurs, stammering shyly for effect, “lady problems. Cis lady problems.”

Coach rolls her eyes. “Is it something you can take care of quickly? Please don’t tell me you’ll need to sit out tonight. We need you to be at the top of your game.”

“I won’t, probably, but I need to go take care of some things,” Misty says sheepishly. “I’ll be as fast as I can, I promise.”

Looking very irritated, Coach sighs. “Okay. Be back as quick as you can.” Then she turns to the others and barks, “Don’t think this means you all can slack off! Or does anybody else have to use the little girls’ room too?”

Behind Coach Dillard’s back, Misty salutes Claire and Jessica before she runs off toward the locker room.

One of the freshmen raises her hand and asks timidly (just as Claire coached her), “Um, Coach, can you go over how the three-point shot works again?”

Coach sighs in exasperation - just as Claire knew she would.

 

* * *

 

Colleen’s sitting in the auditorium, getting more and more anxious as each person auditions and Misty hasn’t shown up yet. Right now, Elektra’s up, and she’s (once again) doing a barely-appropriate song that definitely involves her flirting with the audience (and especially Colleen). A few times, she accidentally meets Elektra’s eyes and can feel herself blushing.

Pam, like before, is sitting on the piano bench next to Hope and watching all of this intently. Elektra is really intent on this new girl, but new girl seems too nervous to notice today.

Elektra, for her part, has definitely notice that Colleen’s all by herself, and while she’s focused on her audition, she can’t help but idly wonder if this means Misty’s ditched the other girl. She can’t help but be a little excited by the idea, because if that’s the case, Colleen will definitely need some...comforting.

Ms. Reid’s noticed that Elektra seems to be directing most of her attention toward the new girl, which doesn’t shock her. That’s just Elektra’s way: she’s always been drawn to pretty faces. Ms. Reid certainly understands that, at least objectively. She certainly wants her sexual partners to be attractive, though she typically is a bit more selective. Then again, Elektra’s approach to romance has always been different from hers.

Elektra’s song ends before Colleen can believe it, and she looks around frantically one last time for Misty. Pam’s next, and then Colleen, and then Misty, but if Misty doesn’t hurry up…

“Hey,” MIsty pants, sliding into the seat next to Colleen. She’s clearly been running.

Colleen feels herself flop back into the chair, after having been tensely waiting for so long. “Hey,” she murmurs, grinning nervously. “I thought for a sec you might not make it.”

“Well, I had to wait for the right moment to get away,” Misty says.

“I’m glad you did,” says Colleen, reaching for Misty’s hand to give it a squeeze.

“I’m glad too,” Misty replies, squeezing back and then leaning over to kiss Colleen’s cheek.

By this point, Pam is up on stage, plaintively belting out a song that she’s clearly changed the gender for (“This is ‘Jenny,’ which used to be called ‘Jimmy,’” she had announced), and nobody is paying attention to the two newbies whispering in the back.

That’s probably good, because when Misty’s lips brush her cheek Colleen makes a startled little noise and then stammers, “Thank you? I haven’t...um.”

“Haven’t what?” Misty murmurs.

“Nobody’s kissed me before,” Colleen admits in a rush.

“Oh, shit,” Misty says. “I should’ve asked. Sorry.”

“No, no, it’s okay!” Colleen says quickly, eyes wide. “I liked it, it was just surprising. But I liked it,” she adds again.

“Okay, good,” Misty smirks. “‘Cause I’d like to do it more, if possible.”

Colleen nods, looking eager. “I would too.”

“Good,” Misty says. “How’s everyone been doing so far?”

“Really well,” replies Colleen, starting to look nervous again. “I mean, I guess the important thing is that we do our best?”

“Yeah,” Misty agrees. “It’s going to be fun no matter what. It is, right?”

“I think so?” Colleen says, smiling. “I mean, it’ll be better if we both get parts, but either way. I’ll come see you if you get cast and I don’t.”

“Same, okay?” Misty promises. “But I bet we both will. We made it this far, right?”

Colleen’s about to reply when Ms. Reid calls her name. “Here I go,” she says, standing up and giving Misty a shaky smile.

“Good luck,” Misty says softly.

Colleen walks to the stage and looks out at Ms. Reid. “I’ll be performing ‘Seventeen’ from _Repo! The Genetic Opera_ ,” she says, because she honestly doesn’t know that many musicals and sort of panicked.

Ms. Reid raises an eyebrow, but nods. “Go ahead, Ms. Wing.”

Colleen looks nervous, but in a really sweet way. (Misty knows she’s biased, but still.) She doesn’t really seem to know to do with herself while Hope bangs out the opening chords on the piano, maybe because it really shouldn’t involve a piano or maybe just because this is new, but her awkwardness is - endearing. And once she starts singing, Misty is enraptured.

Colleen had to edit the song a little to remove the swearing, but she thinks it still comes off okay. This is one she’s sung about a million times in her room, for, well, _reasons_ , so she knows exactly how to sing it. She sneaks a look at Misty and Elektra once, and they both look awed.

Pam just keeps sneaking looks at Elektra. She’s not sure if it’s a good thing that Colleen is doing so well, but she thinks it probably is? “Huh,” she murmurs, to see if Elektra will respond.

Elektra barely seems to hear her. “Alexandra will definitely cast her,” she says quietly, never taking her eyes off Colleen. “ _Very_ good.”

“We want that, right?” Pam asks, abandoning all attempts at subtlety.

“Well, I certainly do,” Elektra purrs, smirking.

Colleen finishes, gives a little bow, and then gets off the stage, trying not to look too anxious. “How was I?” she asks Misty, eyes bright.

“So good,” Misty assures. “You were so good. I’ve got a hell of a job to do, following you.”

“Thanks,” says Colleen. “You’ll be great, you-” She’s interrupted by Ms. Reid calling Misty’s name. “Good luck!”

Misty knows even less about musical theatre, which explains her choice of song. “I’m going to be singing ‘Almost There’ from _The Princess and the Frog_ ,” she announces, trying not to sound too anxious. Yeah, it’s a cartoon, but they’ve put a lot of those onstage, haven’t they? The music is just as good, and besides that, it’s actually about black people, which a lot of the musicals she knows of (basically the ones they’ve made movies of recently) aren’t, or they’re like, _Rent_ and there’s not a lot of good songs you can pull out of the context of the story. (Besides, she’s not Elektra. She’s not going to get up there and sing a song that’s literally about looking for sex.)

Elektra snickers to herself, but not really at Misty. She’s charmed by Misty’s choice of song - though maybe if she’s cast too, Elektra can enlighten her to more relevant Broadway shows. She’s never been the type to make mixtapes, but that might actually be a good excuse to talk to Misty.

As for Colleen, she’s making what is probably the _stupidest_ face as she gazes up at Misty. But she doesn’t really care, because Misty has a pretty voice and and even prettier face. Colleen simultaneously never wants Misty to stop singing and for her to stop singing right now so she can kiss her for real.

Once Misty’s done, Colleen jumps to her feet and leads everyone in a round of applause, not even caring if it makes her look silly. Elektra joins in, nodding approvingly. Ms. Reid doesn’t, but she’s also nodding. There might even be a hint of a smile on her lips.

Misty blushes and nods acknowledgment at Colleen, then whispers a “thank you” to Hope before she scurries offstage and retakes her seat. “You’re not just flattering me, are you?” she asks Colleen with a smirk.

“No,” says Colleen, and then, before she loses her nerve, she leans forward to kiss Misty on the lips.

Misty’s eyes go wide, and she’s pretty sure everyone is staring at them but she doesn’t even care. She just kisses back, loosely draping an arm around Colleen’s shoulders. “Well, thanks,” she murmurs.

“Yeah,” Colleen whispers back. “I hope that was okay, I just…”

“That was very okay,” Misty agrees. “Awesome, even.”

Ms. Reid claps her hands for attention. “Very nicely done, everyone. I’ll be posting the final results on Monday and will have the sides available for your acting auditions in my office after that.”

“Oh,” Colleen says, sounding startled. She turns to Misty. “I thought after this that was it.”

Misty blinks. “I mean, we’re auditioning for acting, not just the glee club or something,” she says, though she also seems wary. “I guess it makes sense…?”

Elektra sidles over, beaming. “You were both wonderful!” she says. “I do hope we’ll all be acting together.” She smirks at Misty. “It’d be a chance for all of us to get to know each other better.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Misty says doubtfully. “What… what are acting auditions even like?”

Shrugging, Elektra replies, “You’ll be given a side - a bit of a script to read. You’ll just act it out. There’s not much to it. You’ll be fine.” She runs her hand down Misty’s arm as if to reassure her.

Misty startles at that, but she tries not to twitch away. “Uh, thanks,” she mumbles.

Colleen narrows her eyes slightly, but nods. “Thanks.” Then she adds to Misty, “You probably have to go back soon, huh?” She tries not to sound too sad.

“You have your thing too,” Misty says, trying to make it sound reassuring. “And we can get together after the game.”

Elektra slips away, smiling despite herself. She can see that this isn’t the time for her to get involved, although she won’t give up just yet.

“Yeah,” agrees Colleen. She kisses Misty again, quickly, and then says, “I’ll come watch whatever I can of your game.”

“Cool,” Misty says, grinning. “I’ll see you then?”

“Okay! Good luck.” Colleen grabs her hand and squeezes it. “And...thanks. For, y’know, everything.”

“Of course.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We definitely plan on continuing things in this verse, although probably not with the actual plot of HSM 2 and 3. Still, it'll be cute and fluffy and we hope you'll stick around when we get around to writing more.


End file.
